1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to laminators and methods of lamination for fusing a plastic laminate to a surface of a card to protect the surface against wear so as to protect sensitive indicia thereon such as pictures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The Assignee of the present invention and other companies sell credit card embossing and printing (personalization) systems which are designed to perform a series of processes which transform a blank card, such as a credit card blank, into a processed card. The processes performed by credit card embossing and printing systems are not limited to embossing credit cards and use a number of processing stations all of which are not required to be activated when flat non-embossed cards are being processed.
Processing of plastic cards performed by the largest credit card embossing systems, is at very high speeds which can result in a throughput of fully processed cards at a rate up to 1500 cards per hour. U.S. Pat. No. 5,837,991, which is assigned to the Assignee of the present invention, is exemplary of the foregoing type of credit card system which patent is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
It is also well known that printing and photographs on a plastic card surface may be protected by the heat fusing of a clear plastic laminate to the card surface on which the printing and photographs are placed.
Data Card Corporation has sold a Model 9000 embossing system which included a laminator which laminated the top surface of flat non-embossed cards with a clear plastic laminate by heat fusing. The clear plastic laminate protected a photographic image of the authorized user of the card. The Data Card system, as a consequence of the laminating operation, introduced heat stress into the plastic card to which the plastic laminate is fused. If the resultant heat stress in the laminated plastic card was not removed, the laminated card was not substantially flat after cooling.
The Data Card Corporation Model 9000, when operating to laminate cards, transports the cards along a horizontal transport path with the individual cards having their width aligned with the transport path. The longitudinal dimension of the cards during processing at the card processing stations is vertically oriented.
The Data Card Model 9000 system laminator included a bowing device which, after lamination, applied a vertical compressive force to both vertically oriented longitudinal ends of the laminated card which retained heat from the lamination. The middle portion of the laminated card was free to bow with the bowing being caused by reducing the longitudinal dimension of the card by the force applied to the ends. The compressive force countered the effect of the heat induced stress by reversing the effect of the bow along the longitudinal dimension introduced by the heat of the lamination operation.
The Assignee of the present invention manufactures a color printer used in its HORIZON embossing system which is described, with the exception of the color printer, in the above-referenced patent. The color printer includes an infeed, a color printing station and an outfeed. The infeed has a pair of driven rollers and a pair of opposed idler rollers between which cards pass during the infeed of cards, such as processed credit cards, to the color printing station. The activation of the infeed rollers causes the card to be moved along a transport path underneath the printhead which, under control of a system controller, applies a color image to at least a portion of the processed card which typically is the side of the card on which the embossing may appear. A second pair of driven rollers is on an outfeed side of the printing station. A corresponding pair of offset idler rollers defines a gap between which the processed credit card bearing the color image passes. The outfeed conveys the printed card to another card processing station when the color printer is part of a HORIZON embossing system or a card collection station. The drive of the first and second pairs of rollers is synchronized such that at least one driven roller is always contacting the card as the card is moved through the color printer to produce uniform movement underneath the printhead.
The present invention is a laminator and a method of laminating flat plastic cards with a clear plastic laminating material in order to protect a photographic image or sensitive printing on a side of the plastic card. As used herein, plastic laminating material is any plastic material, regardless of thickness, which is heat fused to a plastic card which may be carried by a web or be transferred by a thermal transfer method from a continuous web to provide full edge to edge coverage of the card surface. A laminator as used herein applies the plastic laminating material to a plastic card. The plastic card may be, without limitation, a flat (non-embossed) PVC (or other plastic) card and the plastic laminate may be dimensioned to cover substantially all of or only a portion of a surface of the plastic card bearing a printed or a photographic image to be protected. The plastic cards which may be laminated with the invention commercially take many forms including, but not limited to, a non-embossed credit or debit card, a laser engraved credit or debit card, an identification card, and an access card. The clear plastic laminating material may provide a useful life to the printing or photographic image of up to five years.
The invention utilizes a laminating station having a heated roller which applies heat to a first side of a plastic laminating material (which may be, without limitation, a clear polyester overlay with a thickness of, for example, of 0.0002 inches or a clear polyester laminate between 0.0005 and 0.001 inches in thickness) which causes a second side of the plastic laminating material to be heat fused to a first side of the card and a card bowing station located at an outfeed of the laminating station which removes residual heat stress in the card to which the clear plastic laminating material has been fused by applying a bow transversely across a portion (which may be the middle) of the second side of the card relative to a direction of movement of the card through the laminator. The ends of the heated laminated card are fixed while the middle portion is bowed which results in the applied bow deflecting the card in a direction which is opposite to the direction of a heat set bow which would result after cooling of the laminated card if the card bowing station was not utilized. The bow (degree of deflection of the bow from the horizontal, as well as the timing thereof, or the length of the time the bow is applied) applied at the card bowing station is chosen to be sufficient to cause the card when cooled to be substantially flat and is dependent upon the physical properties of the plastics used in the card and the clear plastic laminating material and the physical dimensions of the card and a clear plastic laminate if used as the laminating material. Movement of each card through the laminator is synchronized by a system controller which may be part of the system controller of a card embossing system that produces a high throughput of processed cards without activation of the embossing station. Furthermore, as a result of the card bowing station being located on the outfeed side of the laminating station, the laminated plastic card is sufficiently heated to apply the bow to the card while the molecular structure of the plastic is relatively soft as a consequence of the retained heat. The application of the bowing force, if the laminated card was not in an elevated temperature, would require additional force and deflection which is not required with the present invention in view of the proximity of the card bowing station to the laminating station which results in the card having been heated at the time that bowing at the card bowing station occurs.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the card transport system of the present invention may be that utilized in the Assignee""s color printing assembly used in the Assignee""s HORIZON embosser which is used therein without the embossing station being activated. Currently, it is not possible to commercially laminate an embossed surface of a credit card because the embossed characters cause the heat fused clear plastic laminating material to crack over the useful life of the credit card thus increasing the cost of credit card issuance. In one embodiment of the invention, the card printing assembly of the Assignee is modified to remove the card printing head and in place thereof, to incorporate the laminating station which lowers the cost of the laminator as a result of the card transport system being common to the Assignee""s color printer assembly and to the laminator of the present invention.
A laminator in accordance with the invention includes an infeed which supplies plastic cards which are to be laminated with a plastic laminating material on a first side of each card; a laminating station having a heated roller and a card support, opposed to the heated roller, which supports a second side of each plastic card and is separated from the heated roller to define a card opening through which each plastic card passes when being laminated; a plastic laminating material source which feeds plastic laminating material into the card opening between the heated roller and the first side of each plastic card with heat from the heated roller heating the plastic laminating material and each plastic card in the card opening to fuse the plastic laminating material to the first surface of each plastic card to produce laminated plastic cards; and a card bowing station, located at an outfeed of the laminating station, including a resilient member which moves from a withdrawn position into transverse contact with a portion of the second side of each plastic card relative to a direction of movement of each plastic card through the laminator, while each laminated plastic card retains heat from being laminated, to bow each plastic card sufficiently in the middle portion to cause each laminated plastic card when cooled to be substantially flat. A web may provide the plastic laminating material which is heat fused onto the first side of each card; a source reel may be used on which the web is wound; and a take up reel may be used on which the web is wound after the plastic laminating material is fused to the first side of the plastic cards. At least three driven rollers may be used which contact one side of each card wherein at least one driven roller is located along a card transport path at the infeed and a pair of driven rollers are disposed along the card transport with a-first driven roller of the pair of driven rollers being located between the heated roller and the resilient member and the second driven roller of the pair of driven rollers being located at the outfeed of the card bowing station. The at least three rollers may be driven by a transmission driven by one motor. At least three idler rollers may be used which contact each card on another side of each card and are individually opposed to the individual driven rollers of the at least three driven rollers, with each card passing between the driven and opposed roller when driven by each driven roller contacting the one side of each card and the opposed idler roller contacting the another side. The laminator may include a controller and first, second and third motors; and wherein the first motor drives the at least three driven rollers, the second motor drives the resilient member, and the third motor moves the heated roller into contact with the laminating material and the controller controls activation of the motors. The first motor may be activated under control of the controller to drive each card along the card transport path to drive each card past the heated roller and into a stopped position where each card is contacted by the pair of driven rollers and after each card is in the stopped position, the second motor may be activated under control of the controller to move the part including the resilient member to bow the portion thereof. The laminator may be part of a credit card processing and printing (personalization) system. The resilient member may reciprocate and the transverse contact may be with a middle portion of the second side. The laminating material may be a series of plastic laminates which are spaced apart on a carrying web with the laminates being transferred from the web to the first side of the plastic cards by the heat from the heated roller or the laminating material may be a continuous coating on one side of a carrying web with the laminating material being transferred from the web to the first side of the cards by the heat from the heated roller.
A method of laminating a card with a laminator having an infeed which supplies cards which are to be laminated with a plastic laminating material on a first side of each card, a laminating station having a heated roller and a card support, opposed to the heated roller, which supports a second side of each card and is separated from the heated roller to define a card opening through which each card passes when being laminated, a laminating material source which feeds laminating material into the card opening between the heated roller and the first side of each card, and a card bowing station, located at an outfeed of the laminating station, including a resilient member which moves from a withdrawn position into transverse contact with a portion of the second side of each card relative to a direction of movement of the plastic card through the laminator in accordance with the invention includes feeding a plastic card from the infeed to the laminating station; supplying a plastic laminating material to the laminating station from the laminating material source and heating a first side of the plastic laminating material with the heated roller which fuses a plastic laminating material to the plastic card to produce a laminated card; feeding the laminated card to the bowing station while the laminated card retains heat from the lamination thereof; and moving the resilient member to transversely contact a portion of the second side to bow the card sufficiently in the portion to cause the laminated card to be substantially flat. The plastic laminating material may be conveyed to the laminating station by a web which carries the plastic laminating material and the heated roller contacts the web which heats the plastic laminating material to fuse the plastic laminating material to the first side of the plastic card. At least three driven rollers may be disposed along a transport path of the card through the laminator with each driven roller contacting one side of the plastic card with at least one of the driven rollers being located at the infeed and a first roller of the pair of rollers being located between the heated roller and the resilient member and a second driven roller of the pair of driven rollers being located on an outfeed of the card bowing station and at least three opposed idler rollers may be disposed along the transport path with the plastic card passing between the driven and opposed roller when driven by each driven roller contacting the one side of the card and the opposed idler roller contacting another side of the plastic card; and wherein the second pair of driven rollers may be stopped to cause the plastic card to be held between the second pair of driven rollers and the opposed idler rollers to fix longitudinal ends of the plastic card while the resilient member bows the portion of the plastic card. The laminator may include a controller and first, second and third motors are provided; and wherein the first motor drives the at least three driven rollers, the second motor drives the resilient member, and the third motor moves the heated roller into contact with the laminating material and the controller controls activation of the motors. The first motor may be activated under control of the controller to drive each plastic card along the card transport path to drive each plastic card past the heated roller and into a stopped position where each plastic card may be contacted by the pair of driven rollers and after each plastic card is in the stopped position, the second motor may be activated under control of the controller to move the resilient member to bow the portion. The card which is laminated may be an one of a credit card, a laser engraved card, a debit card, an identification card or an access card. The part may be a reciprocating part and the transverse contact may be with a middle portion of the second side. The laminating material may be a series of plastic laminates which are spaced apart on a carrying web with the laminates being transferred from the web to the first side of the plastic cards by the heat from the heated roller or the laminating material may be a continuous coating on one side of a carrying web with the laminating material being transferred from the web to the first side of the cards by the heat from the heated roller.